Garjī, Mullāh Mattityah

(586 words)

Mullāh Mattityah Garjī, the son of Mullāh Mordecai Garjī and grandson of Mullāh Abraham Garjī, was born in Herat, Afghanistan, in 1845 and died in Jerusalem in 1917. He was descended from a family of rabbis and teachers that was among the forced converts (anusim) to Islam (Jadīd-i Islām) who fled from Mashhad, Iran, to Herat, in 1840, where they were able to openly return to Judaism. His family name, Garjī, indicates that his ancestors were transferred to Mashhad from Georgia by Nādir Shāh (r. 1732–1747), together with Kurds, Sunnīs, Armenians, and other minorities from Qazvīn, Dilman, Yazd…